


When the Night is New

by DoctorTrekLock



Series: Resolution19 [10]
Category: NASA RPF
Genre: Bittersweet, Gen, I suppose it's properly MCD, Mars, NASA, Outer Space, but also the rest of her mission, but it doesn't feel that way?, it's about the Dust Storm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 21:06:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorTrekLock/pseuds/DoctorTrekLock
Summary: They named it MER-1, but they called herOpportunity.Her scientists had sent her here to explore the rocks, so she did. They wanted to know what they were made of, so she looked at them and poked at them and tested them. She sent her readings off to her scientists and was bemused by their excitement.She was just doing what they had asked, after all.





	When the Night is New

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "I'm not giving up yet."  
> Source: <http://doctortreklock.tumblr.com/post/182839837977/legacyretold-facing-death-sentence-starters>  
> Title: "I'll Be Seeing You" by Billie Holiday
> 
> Originally posted February 25, 2019 on [Tumblr](http://doctortreklock.tumblr.com/post/183063862677/when-the-night-is-new-february-25-2019)

They named it MER-1, but they called her _Opportunity_.

Her scientists had sent her here to explore the rocks, so she did. They wanted to know what they were made of, so she looked at them and poked at them and tested them. She sent her readings off to her scientists and was bemused by their excitement.

She was just doing what they had asked, after all.

But her scientists were ever so excitable. They sang to her every morning about the stars and space and discovery.

They never told her how old she would grow, but she heard their surprise when she kept moving, kept measuring, kept photographing. _I feel fine_ , she wanted to tell them. _Why would I stop? There are so many more rocks to see._

_And my messages make you so happy._

So she kept rolling across the red landscape, looking at the dust and the stones. There were long climbs where she was worried she might just fall. There were deep craters she skirted the edges of, careful not to tumble in. There were miles and miles of loose red dust, now complete with tire tracks.

She looked back at her tracks once, at the crisp lines she had left on the still Martian soil. It made her hesitate for a moment. She took a picture and sent it home to her scientists, hoping they might be able to articulate the poetry in it better than she could.

Her cameras captured everything she saw, sending her journey back to her scientists. Small photographs of the rocks that were her mission. Grey photographs of the horizon. And wide, sweeping, vibrant, colorful panoramas of the red-orange landscape that was the only home she'd ever known.

She never asked them about Earth. She wasn't sure how to ask the question, and her scientists were so curious about her own planet, that she couldn't begrudge them the time it would have taken for her to ask them about theirs. She didn't know if the sun was that bright to them, if their nights were that cold. They never told her about their own heights to ascend or depressions to avoid. She never asked them if the wind whistled as loudly on Earth, or if the dust whipped around them in as fierce a gale.

She closed her eyes when the wind howled and the dust flew on Mars. If she was quiet and kept her eyes closed and didn't move, the dust eventually settled down and her sun-warmed solar panels could rouse her once more.

She had almost gotten stuck in the dust once, like her brother _Spirit_ had. Her scientists had pulled her out, though. And her memory had started to go, but her scientists had told her that that was alright; she could carry on without those parts of her.

But she was getting old and she knew it. They never told her how old she would grow, but she knew she had outstripped their expectations fifty-fold. She hadn't been meant to last this long. Her tires were worn from how far she had traveled and her eyes were tired from looking for so long.

But her scientists loved her. And her planet was beautiful. And her rocks were exciting and infinite. And so she carried on. _I'm not giving up yet_ , she wanted to reassure them. _There's still so much more to see._

This storm was just like the others. She knew it was coming, that the time was rapidly approaching for her to close her eyes and keep still and hope the dust would pass quickly. Before it arrived, she sent an update to her scientists. The light was low and her battery was nearing depletion. _My battery is low and it is getting dark_ , she told them.

And the storm hit, and she kept her eyes closed tight and slept, waiting for the storm to pass.

The storm ended. The dust settled.

But it hadn't left her solar panels clear this time. Her battery was too low to wake her on its own. A thick layer of red Martian dust blanketed her solar panels, blocking out the sunlight that was crucial to their function.

And so _Opportunity_ slept.

If she had been human, if she had been on Earth, and if life were a fairy tale, her scientists might have sent a prince to wake her with a kiss. As it was, they waited, and joked, and worried. They talked to her, asking her to wake up, pleading with her to talk to them.

And still _Opportunity_ slept.

They sang to her again, but she couldn't hear them this time.

**Author's Note:**

> The bulk of my research was reading the (short) Wikipedia article for Oppy. As such, I’ve taken a certain amount of artistic license with how things (the mission as a whole and the Dust Storm) went down.
> 
> For those who are interested:
> 
> The [playlist](https://www.space.com/41434-mars-rover-opportunity-wakeup-music-playlist.html?fbclid=IwAR3uL6q4tOmLQTIEhiwYegGc99nv4N01HQKItpCLQiQYIptBOevNN6uIyT8) that NASA played for Oppy
> 
> Some of the [photographs](https://www.space.com/27-latest-mars-shots-spirit-opportunity.html) that Oppy and Spirit sent back, including the one of Oppy's tire tracks
> 
> "I'll Be Seeing You" by Billie Holiday (the song from which the fic title was taken) was the last song NASA sang to Opportunity just before they called the mission last week.


End file.
